By grade inflation I am referring to his FL high school handing out 5’s for Honors courses and 6’s for AICE, AP or dual enrollment. There are kids in his class with 5.5 gpa’s but ACT scores in the 20’s and SAT’s in the 1200’s. When he first enrolled they told him that Honors courses here were going to be taught at a level less than what he was used to in CO.
My understanding is that they consider the advanced classes (AP, Honors, AICE, IB) within the context of what was offered at your school. My own kids’ private school limited the number of AP’s a student could take and there was a high bar to clear to be accepted into an AP class.
Florida public schools grading system (The grade the school receives from the state) factors in how many students take advanced courses. There is a bigger incentive the place students in those classes whether they are academically prepared or not.
That’s why it is hard to compare students on strict metrics. There has to be some context.
UF doesn’t admit to a specific major… you’re either in or in my son’s case out.
UF evidently recalculates GPA but, since my son went 2 years in CO, he was penalized because his advanced math and science courses were not called ‘Honors’ on his transcripts. It shouldn’t be that hard for UF to look and realize that he is a top tier student.
The university recalculates gpa according to its weighting system. No student will earn a 5 for an honors course regardless of what their high school does.
Unfortunately, it is very possible that they didn’t know how to apply context from one state to another.
Yes, I wonder if there might have been a mistake in some non-holistic automated screening part of the process that might have prevented the file from getting an actual reading by a human?
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Exactly…UF won’t give him honors weighting for those classes in their GPA re-calc. It’s unfortunate his HS counselor won’t help out (that’s not uncommon). Here is the decision appeal process at UF: Freshman - University of Florida
@Melissa96 Is that link to the appeal process what @interestedpop’s student should follow? Any other things to know, for example, should they get a school profile from the CO school?
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How totally & incredibly frustrating!
Where else did he apply? What acceptances has he received so far from other schools?
Why do you think “he was penalized because both of his parents went to college”?
Yes appealing is the next step.
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Might I “suggest” if the user wants further discussion on UF next steps that she start her own thread.
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Ah that makes sense…Although many colleges recalculate GPAs based on their own formulas…Perhaps UF doesn’t do that. That does seem unfair.
Ah, that’s what happened. The UCs do the same with with out of state honors classes. That really is disappointing.
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And yet every year some CA parents will rant about how OOS students get into UC CSU easier than in-state students.
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Is it easier? Maybe at some campuses. AP courses are weighted the same, though, whether you are in state or out of state. It’s only honors courses that take a hit if you’re OOS. So an out os state student who takes lots of APs and not so many honors courses will not be disadvantaged. If, however, an out of state students attends a school that offers few APs and primarily honors classes, then they could be disadvantaged when their UC GPA is recalculated.
Most majors at most CSUs will admit California resident frosh applicants with 2.5 recalculated HS GPA, but non-California residents need a higher minimum HS GPA.
UF would have given him the extra .5 for Honors or the extra 1 point for AP/AICE/IB/DE if the schools in Co. and Tx. considered those courses Honors at his school and marked on his transcript or if he had taken AP/IB/AICE/DE and shown on his transcript.
No they are not disadvantaging anyone
Yes UF uses a weighted GPA that takes into account course rigor by adding .5 to an Honors grade and 1 point to a college level course AP/IB/AICE DE so an A in honors = 4.5 and in a college level course an A = 5.
All Florida Public Universities use basically the same weighted GPA with some minor differences ie: what non core classes they count
This is how UF middle 50% range is between 4.4-4.6 GPA last year
I was answering a different question. Someone theorized why a kid with an UW 4.0 GPA was so low in his class rank. I said that his high school may rank by weighted GPA thus disadvantaging him versus his peers who spent 4 years of high school in FL. His pre-FL perfect grades were not worth the same as the “inflated” grades of his peers he graduated with (per his dad). Tough situation.
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Note that if UF did not add the weighting points for the student’s prior out-of-state grades (for whatever reason, such as not being marked as “honors”), that would disadvantage the student in UF admission.
Disadvantages for students who move to different high schools exist in other situations. For example, some Texas high schools disadvantage class ranking for students who transfer in. In some states, there may be graduation requirements that a transferring in student may have to catch up on, displacing schedule space that would otherwise be used for college prep academic courses. Or the transferring in student may be denied placement in desired college prep (or honors or AP etc.) courses due to them being full or rationed.
Put another way, move on. Focusing on one kid is not the purpose of this thread, and experienced users should not allow themselves to get sucked into off-topic conversations.
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